The Welsh Wanderers Ladies travelled to Malta on a Saturday evening for a week of training against junior boys teams, specifically the Neptune’s U15’s, and playing each of the ladies teams on the island in matches each evening. It was going to be a challenging week and with the temperatures peaking at a recorded 51°c - it was tough!

We landed late and got to the hotel about midnight, which was not a challenging trip but our morning training was at 11am in the heat which we found tougher than expected. The girls trained hard, shooting was the main activity due to the wind and waves creating a moving goal, something that’d challenge us through the matches in the evenings and getting our eyes in early was a big focus of day 1.

Monday: Match 1 VS Neptune’s
The match on day 1 was planned as a simple scrimmage against Neptune’s, the host club. With 18 girls including the GK’s it was good to get everyone into a match situation fast and the team started to gel early on, with both teams first attacks producing a goal it was going to be a high scoring match. As the game went on the girls learnt that the Maltese style of water polo was very physical and involved a lot of outside shooting, something the girls struggled to prevent in the first half. In the second half the attacked began to flow with several girls getting goals for our team and more effective in defence stopping the outside shooting. We ended winning the scrimmage, numbers were on our side and it was a good start to the tour. We had a formal match on night 2 so that was the real challenge. The game finished 22-17 to us, but this wasn’t the full team from Neptune’s, the tougher game was to come!

Tuesday: Match 2 VS Sliema
Day 3 began with a more even competition, the ladies and girls all playing against the U15 boys as a training game, managing their M-zone and focusing on scoring from quick effective passing under a lot of pressure from mobile defenders. You could see the progress in the girls as the ball moved and we collected more goals, along with managing the counter attack successfully through several passages of play.

The evening game was against Sliema, from information in advance this was a stronger team than Neptune’s, and from the match it was clear this was the best team in Malta. They had a strong keeper, a very strong pair of shooters and strong pit play which meant that their only real vulnerability was counter attack, we took the first few minutes to identify this as it has been our main focus of the tour to up the speed and push for fast goals in preparation for BWPL. We took 3 goals, one from each of our first 3 attacks giving a commanding lead that left us 4-1 at the end of quarter 1. The match continued with an ever increasing threat from Sliema CF’s and outside shooters alike, as they moved the ball quickly with a physicality that required players to assist one another with drives far more than has been the case. We collected several majors and conceded from strong shots in the second half leaving the score at 8-6 in our favour, the gap had closed. The pressure was endless from Sliema as they rotated through a strong 13 woman squad of seniors that all seemed to be able to shoot from 8m and did so as soon as there was the slightest space to kick up. Fortunately the Wanderers keepers were up to the task time and time again! The third quarter was tight with both sides scoring but the Wanderers keeper was making more saves and we were pulling ahead.

The game finished 23-17 in a high speed goal scoring final quarter that took a huge effort from everyone involved. We maintained a speed that Sliema just couldn’t keep up with and it was the endless counter attacks that took it away from Sliema in the end.
This was the game of the week without question and earned the attention of Valetta super star Gergley Kiss, 3 time Olympic Gold winner in Water Polo with Hungary, 2000, 2004, 2008 who had a few kind words to say to Rohan and the girls after the game as we had played a nearly faultless game. We found he and the girls all had been getting a bit of misfortune with the jellyfish and compared stings.

Wednesday: Match 3 VS Neptune’s
Day 2 started early with an 8am training game for the Junior team VS a mixed Neptune’s U15’s team, it turned out to be the U15 Neptune boys with the only girl who had played the night before who was 15. Not quite what was promised but we agreed to play a training scrimmage to see how it went. The U15 boys, were significantly stronger than the junior girls, but we persisted collecting a few goals but most importantly managing a very strong counter attack, complimented again with outside shooting. A tough morning but good for development and training as it gave the younger girls a lot of practice at defending outside shooters and making sure the change of possession was controlled and not a steal.

The match on day 2 was against the host club Neptune’s, both had plenty of players so it was agreed to be an open match with 16 Neptune’s and the 18 Wanderers. We started off strong, again scoring the first goal and earning some excellent man ups thanks to drives from the right wing. This took the score to 4-1 before the home referee seemed to stop giving majors to us. This made a tough situation as the physicality of the Neptune’s team was clearly a big asset and they tried to bully Wanderers, as we were the smaller team. This lead to conceding a few goals and the score swinging in Neptune’s favour at 10-7 by half time. However Wanderers then upped their defence and held the Maltese at distance, protecting their goal and reducing the majors conceded. This tactic held for the remainder of the game as we focused on counter attack at speed with good passing to hand to convert possession into quick goals, we saw the game turning in our favor as we pulled level at 14-14. The game then started to be taken out of Neptune’s hands, they got more physical but the defence held with team mates helping each other to ensure that no attacker made it to a goal scoring position without 2 defenders. The game finished 22-15 with a huge all round performance after approximately 90minutes of gameplay! The Maltese quarters seemed to be longer than the UK version.

Thursday: Rest on a Boat Cruise
This was a day that all had been looking forward to and was much needed after the pressure, excitement and exhaustion of the Sliema match. A rest, on a boat in the ocean visiting a couple of swimming spots with all food and drink included, perfect. The idea of having water, Coke and Fanta on demand was one the team took a great shine to in the hot conditions. It was far better at washing the taste of the sea away which meant there was a steady stream of players and staff from the sea to the drinks service and back into the ocean!

This was followed by a great lunch of steak, fresh cod caught or a great Pasta with tomato and olive sauce, all of which went down very well with the whole team, along with another swig of coke or Fanta and water, lots of water!

The highlight of the day has to be the speed boat tour of some of the caves around the islands of Malta, in between the driver’s acrobatic tricks with the whole team in the boat enjoying it together as we were thrown, spun and launched over the waves! The caves showed some fantastic pieces of the sea, as the water was like glass allowing us to see further down than was possible in the rest of the sea.

The team enjoyed the waves, the casual swim which did end up being a passing session out of the way of the boats where we could practice a bit of water polo, admittedly after tiring with jumping off various parts of the ship, or climbing the anchor rope from the water. It seemed the boat had been made perfectly for climbing and jumping at various points, which the girls took to with enthusiasm. There was also plenty of time to work on tans and enjoy the warmth of the sun under layer upon layer of sun cream in preparation for the toughest match of the week, the Exiles!

Friday: Match 4 VS Exiles
We had a change to the regular plans on this day and trained alone in the sea. The objective was to get man up working well and ensuring everyone was familiar with the moves and how to score during or after a move was completed. The drop in swimming was deliberate as Exiles were at the top of the ladies league and we wanted to be as fresh as possible for the team that was classed by opposition as ‘brutal’. The moves worked and the team was happy with no real scrimmaging just practicing ball movement and shooting, lots of shooting into the constantly moving goals. The match itself was well prepared for by the girls, with everyone having an air conditioned nap in preparation for the big game tonight.
The juniors played their mixed match first against an Exiles mixed team, it started badly with conceding goals early and the team struggled to pull back. Every time we scored the Exiles teams balance from all girls shifted to boys and it became a constantly uphill struggle that finished 8-4 to them, with a lot of boys in the water and few girls to be seen except on the home team’s bench. The main challenge in this match was the waves and the number of boys who were playing, it was another not so balanced mixed team.
The ladies, after watching and playing in the junior game were pulled together and after stern words they set out to play the nastiest match of the week! Exiles were brutally physical and it was an effort to keep matters calm at times especially on the seaward side of the pitch where the flood light didn’t quite reach or the referee just wasn’t watching. Either way it was tough on the far wing.
We were slow to start but the defence held, with our keeper making big saves early on to keep the game low scoring. It took several attacks for us to get a goal, it has to be said that the pitch was constantly rising and falling making passing and team play difficult as you couldn’t always see the team from the bench, let alone the water! Finally in a calmer sea for a few moment we took the lead quickly with two goals, before the Exiles big outside shooter buried the ball in the back of our own net twice, leaving the score 2-2 at the end of quarter 1. Quarter 2 began and the game went better with the sea calming and we took a lead and were able to maintain it, all be it with a lot of shots from the Exiles No4 who would shoot off minors or under light pressure almost every attack now. The quarter ended 6-3 in our favour but we were battered with refereeing that wasn’t giving many majors at all which meant the man up practice hadn’t been able to show.
The second half was where things got interesting, the referee had to leave for another event which meant one of the club coaches took the whistle, not Rohan although he was offered and had accepted. The second half was tougher than the first, the light was fading, the tide came back in and the match took on a greater physicality, hidden by waves and shown by the scratches and claw marks on each of the girls through substitutions, arms, necks and legs were showing the brunt of the Exiles physicality, but they were tiring. The Exiles were spending more time fighting and couldn’t keep up with the balls movement, earning us a few more chances to shoot in attack and critically stopping their strong No4 from scoring thanks to strong man to man defence. This was the turning point and while goals were few and far between, the result ended with Wanderers ahead 9-7, we had done it and beaten each of the ladies teams on the island in a week.

Saturday: Match 5 VS Neptune’s
The final game of the week was on the Sat morning at 8am against Neptune ladies, while we’d beaten them on the Tuesday evening it was a different matter after a week of games / training and sun and the feeling of fatigue went through the team to the youngest player, no one felt like they’d not had enough game time. With a style change and a far slower game plan the team took on the final challenge of the week with a confidence that had grown through hard fought victories being balanced by scrimmages with the U15 boys’ team from Neptune’s to sharpen passing, finishing and defence.
It was a tight game throughout, with Neptune’s scoring first and a few long minutes before the equialiser. Again we both had big squads, this was something that would play a big part as we had gone for a balanced team with significant rotation, firstly due to the length of time between goals and secondly as a result of the fatigue on several of the senior starters that had battled hard against a physical Exiles team and were carrying injuries that made playing for any length of time challenging.

This game remained even with a goal apiece every 2 or 3 minutes. We came to the last quarter at 6 – 6 and everything to play for. However the last quarter was ours with 3 unanswered goals putting us 9-6 ahead and continuing to advance slowly and confidently with our youngest keeper making some big saves to hold the back line strong. The final goal was a powerful shot on the last attack of the game, leaving us undefeated through a week of physical challenges against strong players and some challenging refereeing, certainly a different style of gameplay to the UK!